Sugarland Cornfields, 11 x 14, UART 500

I’m back after a wonderful couple of hours in the Montgomery County Agricultural Preserve. I went to Sugarland Road (near Poolesville) and decided to paint stubbled cornfields with bushes and trees. I liked the rise with the trees and the patterns of the bushes. This was the first plein air painting I’ve done since a very hot day in June!  The temperature was very comfortable and the air smelled of grass–really wonderful.  I did a hard pastel underpainting, using some browns for the fields.  I was in full son while painting the bushes and trees and then, all of a sudden, a cloud came over and cast a shadow on the near field, while leaving light on the left and a lovely band of light across to the right. I immediately grabbed a lighter ochre pastel and laid in the shape of the light. It was one of those magical moments that you only get when painting outside.  I was reminded, however, that the most difficult part of plein air painting–I believe–is value. Getting the value of the sky right was my first challenge. I started out with a turquoisy pastel from Great American (Beacon) that looked good until I started putting in the trees and realized that they weren’t coming out dark enough against the sky. So I went over it with lighter blues and violets until I felt it looked about right.  The next challenge is always the greens!  They all seem to be either too dark or too light. And  I know that when I come inside they will look even darker. However, these challenges aside, it was great to be outside again working from nature instead of in my studio with four walls and a black and white photo!  I’ll get back to that later.